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2003-06-26 Intel confirms PCI Express switching push

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2004-06-21 PCI ExpressPC interconnect formerly known as 3GIO. Evolved from PCI and the physical interface of InfiniBand to a serial high bandwidth interface which will be used both as a PCI / AGP replacement and for chip to chip communications. Runs at 2.5 GHz and 0.8 V today, but will move to 5 GHz in PCI Express 2 in 2007-2008, and later to 10 GHz. Provides independent channels for each direction. Multiple bus widths are available:

1bit, x1: 250 MB/s (312 MB/s raw), 8 pins. PCI replacement

4bit, x4: 1 GB/s, 20 pins

8bit, x8: 2 GB/s, 40 pins

12bit, x12: ? pins

16bit, x16: 4 GB/s, 80 pins. Replacement for AGP and connects to the North Bridge

32bit, x32: ? pins

From PCISIG:"PCI Express currently runs at 2.5Gtps, or 250MBps per lane in each direction, providing a total bandwidth of 16GBps in a 32-lane configuration. Future frequency increases will scale up total bandwidth to the limits of copper and significantly beyond that via other media without impacting any layers above the Physical Layer in the protocol stack."

Will also spawn a successor to the PCMCIA (PC-Card, CardBus) slot, 3GIO-M, Newcard or ExpressCard, which includes both PCI Express and USB 2.0 interfaces.